07/02/2025
ELLIE BOLEY, GRANDDAUGHTER OF ILLINOIS BOWLING PROPRIETOR,
RECEIVES $25,000 DAROLL AND DOLORES FREWING SCHOLARSHIP
Presentation Takes Place at BPAA’s International Bowl Expo in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ellie Boley, now a graduate of Plainfield North High School in Plainfield, Ill., is the 2025 recipient of the Daroll and Dolores Frewing Scholarship. Valued at $25,000, it is the richest scholarship in bowling.
Boley was honored at International Bowl Expo on July 1, just prior to a keynote address by William McRaven. David and Janet Frewing pinch-hit for Daroll and Dee in honoring Boley as Dee continued her regimen of health treatments in California.
“Both Dee and I are so sorry we missed the presentation this year but want to offer our sincere congratulations to Ellie,” said Daroll Frewing. “She joins a list of impressive young people who have earned the scholarship since it was introduced in 2020.”
The recipient that year was Andrew Amore, followed by Avery Schenk (2021), Emma McCrary (2022), Aaliyah Friend (2023) and Azia Martin (2024).
The Frewing Scholarship is available exclusively to children or grandchildren of Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America member center owners. Boley qualified as a granddaughter of Donny Zielinski, the owner of Bowl-Hi Lanes in Huntley, Illinois.
“She is the girl who breaks the mold,” Zielinski said of Boley. “She has a heart of gold in the things she does for other people.”
When the girls’ bowling team at Plainfield North risked extinction following the 2024-25 school year due to a diminishing number of team members, Boley stepped up to organize a weekly bowling camp over a one-month period to generate interest and provide additional players for the squad.
Efforts like that on behalf of bowling, combined with a solid record of academic achievement and community involvement, gave Boley the edge over other Frewing Scholarship applicants this year.
An anonymous committee pores over the submitted applications to select the winner.
Boley has been accepted to attend Lewis University, a private college in Romeoville, Ill. While she excelled in science and English classes throughout high school, she says she hasn’t yet decided on a career, other than it will be “people-oriented, hands-on and not in an office.” She added that she plans to continue producing works of art (paintings being her favorite), a hobby that began when she started attending after-school art classes in the fifth grade.
In addition to being recognized on the Bowl Expo stage and receiving the $25,000 scholarship, Boley’s name and picture will be added to the Frewing Scholarship exhibit at the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame in Arlington, Texas, and she will be the subject of the August cover story in Bowling Center Management (BCM), the official magazine of the BPAA.
